398 INDEX TO THE STRATIGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



"Lot 5289. This lot consists of three fragments of coarse gray sandstone bearing car- 

 bonized impressions of pieces of partially decorticated stems. The characters of the very 

 imperfect impressions point toward a close affinity with Lepidodendron corrugatum. 



' ' Lot 5290. This lot includes two small packages of wavy, black carbonaceous shale sphtting 

 in thin laminae. This shale contains many fragments of leaves of Lepidodendron, and uniden- 

 tifiable, decorticated stem fragments of several kinds, together with several imperfect remains 

 in a better state of preservation. The latter represent Sphenopteris frigida Heer, twigs of 

 Lepidodendron veltJieimianum as generally identified in the European and Arctic floras, with 

 a cone fragment possibly belonging to the same species, and portions of a Lepidophyllum 

 very close to LepidopTiyllum fuisseense Vafi^. There are also present several fragments of a 

 cyclop terid type; these are so incomplete that it is not really possible to decide whether they 

 represent (a) rachial pinnules of Neuropteris; (J) some large, broad pinnuled Aneimites; or, 

 (c) pinnules of Cardiopteris. I am inclined to refer them to the latter genus. 



' ' The plant remains from Cape Thompson are so fragmentary and meager as to determi- 

 nable species as not to permit a close determination of the age of the beds. They appear to 

 be Mississippian and probably represent a stage in the lower part of this division. They may 

 even come from the basal member thereof." 



These plants evidently belong to the same horizon as that from which Collier obtained 

 Carboniferous plants at Cape Lisburne. Concerning the Cape Lisburne plants. Dr. White's 

 report '' contains the following statement relative to their age: 



' ' These fossil plants are evidently of Carboniferous age. Owing to the marked scarcity 

 of filicate elements the testimony of the collection is less direct as to precise age than might 

 otherwise be the case. However, from the evidence in hand I am forced to conclude that the 

 plant-bearing terrane is Mississippian, and it appears probable that it is referable to the lower 

 portion of the Mississippian. The flora * * * ig yery closely related to that from Bell 

 Sound and Klass-Billen Bay in Spitzbergen. It seems to be slightly younger than the Ursa 

 flora." 



Above the plant-bearing beds only marine fossils are seen. The limestones which follow 

 the sandstone and shales carry an abundant fauna. Corals are quite abundant in the upper 

 division of the limestone series. 



Dr. Girty furnished a list of fossils from these beds, on which Kindle com- 

 ments as follows : 



While some of the collections are much less numerous than others, it is probably safe 

 to refer them to a single fauna, which is without much question of lower Carboniferous or 

 Mississippian age. It is true that some of the forms appear to be allied to species in the Bur- 

 lington and Keokuk of the Mississippian section, but I believe that the beds furnishing these 

 fossils should correlate only with the upper Mississippian. Indeed, the faunas are especially 

 suggestive of the well-known fauna of Spergen Plill, which is known to have been rather 

 extensively distributed toward the northwest. 



I have long been of the opinion that our upper Mississippian correlates in a general way 

 with the Mississippian limestone of Europe and Asia, but the evidence has been more or less 

 indirect and general in character. The present faunas are especially interesting, becsCuse they 

 seem to show to some extent a mingling of the two faunas. The Mountain limestone element 

 is represented by the abundance of Lithostrotion, and other features could probably be pointed 

 out by one familiar with the European faunas. The coral fauna of the Mountain Hmestone 

 is already known in Alaska, especially at Cape Lisburne, but it has not there, so far as known, 

 the admixture of Mississippian types. 



In connection with the interesting resemblance of the Cape Thompson fauna to, the Spergen 

 HiU fauna pointed out by Dr. Girty, reference may be made to the minute character of many 



« Collier, A. J., Geology and coal resources of the Cape Lisbiime region, Alaska: Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey No. 278, 

 1906, p. 22. 



